With the help of such thoughtful, fool-proof software, all the spectators were naturally satisfied and downloaded the game "Asshole Bird."
The vast majority of spectators initially thought they could easily surpass their idol's record, as there were only a little over three hundred accounts on the leaderboard at the time, with only 300-plus people having uploaded their scores. This was a very small base, so surpassing Michael Jackson's record should have been a piece of cake.
However, as soon as they started downloading the game, they realized how terribly wrong they were. 99% of people didn't even score 5 points on their first try before crashing into a wall.
After a few more attempts, the results were all the same. The game was maddeningly difficult. A divide began to emerge, with about 60% of players giving up immediately, not wanting to torment themselves further.
But about 40% of players continued.
An hour later, another 60% of that 40% gave up, but 40% still remained.
After a full day, 90% of players had basically given up on torturing themselves, but 10% of players were completely locked in a battle with the game, vowing not to rest until they surpassed Michael Jackson's score.
Games like "Asshole Bird" are extreme. And while extreme games easily drive away the vast majority of players, they can also foster some extremely loyal fans.
So, even though over 90% of players played for a bit and then quit, not wanting to torment themselves, the remaining 10% of players, multiplied by a large enough base, still represented an incredibly terrifying number. Approximately 100,000 players began to grind this game.
Many, in their repeated collisions with trees, seemed to forget their original intention of "checking in" for their idol, instead becoming solely focused on surpassing their previous records and achieving higher scores... Damn it, hit the tree again. Should I recharge $1 to buy a revival coin?
Michael Jackson's score of 107 was actually quite meticulous. Firstly, it immediately blocked 99.99% of people. For instance, Bannon, a former gaming expert, and several young entertainment enthusiasts were all kept out.
Only 1% of geniuses could pass within a few hours.
However, with enough effort, playing desperately for about a week, combined with revival coins, a normal person would still have over a 70% chance of achieving this score.
So, about a week later, numerous posts began appearing online showing off scores, especially under Michael Jackson's original Weibo post, with people excitedly sharing their scores.
Here, it's worth mentioning the deep integration of the oo game platform and Weibo. As long as the phone was connected to the internet and a simple click was made, the score was immediately uploaded to the Weibo platform. Simultaneously, it would be directly displayed in the newly opened personal achievements section of Weibo, allowing users to show off in various places on Weibo.
Not only could they show off under Michael Jackson's Weibo, but they could also boast on their own Moments, adding a challenging "Can you do it?"
Especially since Weibo quickly introduced a friend ranking feature. When users clicked on the rankings, they could see the top score among their friends and how far they were from it. This ability to stir up competition was truly remarkable.
Those who played "Asshole Bird" were mostly young people, and young people are the least able to resist competition. Thus, many who weren't initially too concerned about rankings couldn't help but want to surpass those damn guys.
Suddenly, another batch of non-Michael Jackson fans joined the oo mobile game platform, showcasing their prowess in the game "Asshole Bird."
At this moment, the media began to report extensively on this event. Michael Jackson's popularity was already at its peak, and now with such a game challenge activity, the heat naturally reached an extremely high level.
Following this, many celebrities also appeared, sharing their scores, and soon the entire Weibo platform was filled with a trend of showing off scores and comparing rankings.
Of course, if you looked closely, you would find that the celebrities who initially followed the trend were all actors with collaborations with Marvel. But as the event evolved into a Hollywood-wide phenomenon, countless celebrities had no choice but to get involved with "Asshole Bird" scores.
In fact, a similar situation had occurred in history. The game "Crazy Birds" at the time had similarly conquered global social media.
That game was an iOS game created by an Indonesian university student on his old computer. With its addictive rhythm and the rise of social media at the time, it became a global sensation.
This time, with the boost of Boss Huang's money, this rebranded "Asshole Bird" had truly become popular, completely sweeping across the United States.
Later, "Asshole Bird" was everywhere on social media, with users showing off their achievements and scores. The vast majority of these users no longer had any connection to Michael Jackson; they simply wanted to surpass their online friends.
Leveraging this opportunity, Michael Jackson once again gained immense popularity. As the child molestation case heat gradually subsided, and with no evidence found beyond his testimony, Michael Jackson's situation actually improved considerably.
Seeing that Michael Jackson still possessed such astonishing appeal, many companies became interested, and some companies even bravely decided to continue collaborating with him.
In short, everything began to look up.
It was under this trend that a few mischievous kids from Bannon's company were drawn into the game by their friends and became unable to stop, vowing to defeat all opponents in their social circle. They spent their days glued to their phones, swiping and swiping, until Bannon called them into his office, finally making the slow-to-realize elder Bannon aware of the huge news that had erupted on the oo game platform.
After defeating these little rascals, Bannon finally calmed down, stopped playing on his phone all day, and began to handle the company's daily affairs, playing on his phone later.
He no longer stayed up until midnight, somewhat returning to a normal rhythm of life.
At this point, Bannon also began to calculate how much money he had spent in total on this "Asshole Bird."
After calculation, Bannon discovered that he had recharged over 1800 oo coins, theoretically costing $180.
This number was actually quite significant, considering that the standard version of a top-tier AAA console game wouldn't cost more than $70, as the market wouldn't accept it otherwise.
Yet, for such a mobile game, Bannon had spent a full $180.
Moreover, a AAA game of today is about 1GB in size, but "Asshole Bird" was only 2MB. This was akin to selling a blade of grass at the price of a thousand-year-old ginseng.
Bannon calculated again, no, because he used phone top-ups, he had to pay over $360 in phone bills, which was his actual expense. He had spent $360 for a game, which was unbelievable.
Thinking of this, Bannon suddenly understood why his company's mobile platform had received over $300,000 in massive revenue. Players had invested far more money in just the game "Asshole Bird" than in AAA console blockbusters.
Based on the current situation, it's conservatively estimated that at least 10 million people across the United States have played "Asshole Bird"... Well, this is a conservative estimate because the popularity and ripple effect of "Asshole Bird" are truly terrifying.
Although the heat in the United States has slightly subsided, it has gradually spread globally through social media. The "Asshole Bird" game is now taking off worldwide, so 10 million users is definitely a conservative figure, and likely more.
Assuming that among these 10 million players, the paying user rate is around 1%... This paying user rate is certainly very low, almost unrealistically low, but since it's an assumption, we'll proceed with the worst-case scenario to avoid problems.
So, assuming a 1% paying user rate, that would mean 100,000 paying users, and if these 100,000 users each paid an average of $100, that would result in $10 million in revenue.
In this way, it's quite reasonable for over $300,000 to be distributed among a dozen mobile phone manufacturers.
"Actually, the biggest earner this time is definitely Jiangnan Group. They could earn at least $3 million from this $10 million!" Bannon calculated in his mind.
——————
"Boss, all the revenue has been distributed. A total of $4.42 million in revenue sharing has been issued to the 15 mobile phone companies!" Hu Jing reported to Boss Huang in his office.
"Only $4.42 million? That's a bit low. I thought it would exceed $5 million in revenue sharing," Boss Huang shook his head, expressing his regret. "What about our own share?"
"Our own revenue for last month totaled $145.12 million!" Hu Jing continued her report.
"Is it that much? Why is there such a big difference between what the mobile phone companies receive and what we receive? Don't they get to take 20%?" Boss Huang was genuinely surprised by the figure.
"Yes!" Hu Jing replied expressionlessly. "But who made it so that 90% of our users are not installing the games from the enterprise-cooperated versions, but rather from the clean installation packages provided by enthusiastic netizens online?"